Even as they increase the beauty of our surroundings, trees provide us with a great many ecosystem services, including air quality improvement, energy conservation, stormwater interception, and atmospheric carbon dioxide reduction. These benefits must be weighed against the costs of maintaining trees, including planting, pruning, irrigation, adm... more »inistration, pest control, liability, cleanup, and removal. We present benefits and costs for representative small, medium, and large deciduous trees and coniferous trees in the Interior West region derived from models based on indepth research carried out in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Net benefits increase with tree size and differ based on location. A large tree planted opposite the west wall of a building provides the greatest benefit. Two hypothetical examples of planting projects are described to illustrate how the data in this guide can be adapted to local uses, and guidelines for maximizing benefits and reducing costs are given.« less